


Learning Curve

by MiladyDragon



Series: Dragon-Verse: Series Two [7]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon-Verse, Dragons, F/M, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-12-07
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiladyDragon/pseuds/MiladyDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys Williams meets someone in his local pub who will change his life forever</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately after "To Be Human".

 

**_29 June 2008_ **

****

Rhys Williams was exhausted.

It had been a hell of a day.  It had started off well enough – if he didn’t count Gwen getting called out in the middle of the night – but then the M4 had been closed over some sort of industrial accident.  It hadn’t helped when the phones had all gone down, and while the news was reporting that it had been a breakdown somewhere, Rhys had heard the story from one of his drivers who’d managed to report in by radio that there’d been an explosion in City Centre, near the Central Server, and it had sparked off rumours among the lads about what had really happened.

There hadn’t been much in the way of work done after that. 

With every phone in the city down, many of the businesses they usually did haulage for had closed.  Rhys had gotten the approval from Mr. Harwood to send everyone home, telling the owner that a lot of them were worried about their loved ones and didn’t have any way to reach them.  Mr. Harwood had understood – after all, this was Cardiff, and weird stuff went on all the time, and if a person wasn’t careful they could walk right into it without any warning. 

And so, Rhys found himself sitting in a near-empty pub, nursing a pint while absently watching what few people were walking past out of the window. 

There really was no need to go home.  He knew from bitter experience that, when strange shit happened, Gwen could possibly be gone for days.  He had to fight the urge every time she came home to ask her exactly what ‘Special Ops’ meant, and if there might be a day when she didn’t come home at all. 

That was a thought he really didn’t want to have.

Still, Rhys could guess some of what Gwen did, even if she couldn’t tell him outright.  He’d seen her come home hurt, and bone weary, and knew her job wasn’t in any way safe.  But he’d also seen the gleam in her eye when she’d told him that she’d had a good day…and the flash of fire when something had pissed her off so badly she’d wanted to rant about it, but couldn’t without breaking whatever thing she’d had to sign when she’d been hired. 

He hadn’t believed that ‘bit of filing’ explanation for a long time now.   It made him wonder just what else she’d lied to him about.

Rhys rubbed his tired eyes, taking a sip from his mug.  He could make out the news in the background, talking about technical failures and gas main breaks and he wondered if anyone who’d lived in Cardiff for more than a year really believed that shit anymore, and if it was true then why didn’t anyone update everything so that it actually _worked_.

“Rhys Williams?”

He glanced up.  A young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stood by his booth, holding his pint and a second one that was obviously meant for Rhys himself.  He seemed as exhausted as Rhys felt, his suit slightly rumpled and his tie askew, and his blue eyes old and sad.

“Do I know you, mate?” Rhys asked, not bothering to hide his slight irritation at being bothered.

“No, but I know you,” the young man answered.  “I work with Gwen, and I’m the one who performed her background check when she was hired.”

“You work with my Gwen?”  Rhys had long stopped asking to meet Gwen’s co-workers, after her adamant denial to let him get involved with her work in any way.  She’d claimed she wanted to keep private life and work life separate, but Rhys had gotten the impression it was more than that.  He would have pressed it but he knew when to pick his battles by now.

“May I?”  He gestured toward the empty side of the booth, and Rhys nodded.  The extra pint was slid across the table toward him, and Rhys accepted it graciously.  Anyone bringing beer was welcome.

“Should you even be talking to me?” Rhys asked.  “Gwen says you’re all top secret and that.”

The man chuckled.  “We’re actually above top secret, but there’s nothing in the rules that says I can’t speak to the significant others of the people I work with.  Jones,” he extended his hand, “Ianto Jones.”

Rhys shook, noticing that his hand seemed a bit too warm, and he couldn’t help but snort at the name.  “I think you’re carrying the Special Ops thing a bit too far.”  At the young man’s confused look, he elaborated, “Your name is the Welsh version of John Smith and all.”

Jones blinked, and then snorted himself.  “I never actually thought of that.  I assure you, Ianto Jones is really my name.”  He took a drink from his own pint. 

“I would have thought you lot would have been working,” Rhys commented. 

“Oh, you mean the explosions?”  Jones nodded.  “We did make sure it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but our team is simply too small to help out with the major clean-up.  We do what we can, but sometimes it just isn’t enough.”  The sadness grew in his eyes, but when he blinked it was gone.

“Are you sure you’re supposed to be telling me that?”

Again Jones chuckled. “It’s not like the rumour mill in Cardiff isn’t already going insane with theories.”

Rhys had to admit that the man had a point.

“Does this mean Gwen’s gonna be home soon?” he asked, wanting to be there when his fiancée got back to the flat.

“It might be a while,” Jones admitted.  “She has a few more things to do back at the base.  And I have to warn you: she might not be happy when you do see her.”

Rhys winced.  That had been happening more and more lately, and it was never pleasant.  “Maybe I’ll just sit here and finish my two pints then.”

“That might not be a bad idea.” 

It was silent for a few minutes, and Jones was regarding him closely, as if trying to see something inside him.  Rhys wanted to squirm under that gaze, but managed to remain calm and finish off the first pint.  He reached for the second one, but Jones stopped him.

“What do you know about Torchwood?”

Rhys was taken aback by the suddenness of the question.  After he digested what Jones had asked, he said, “Not much, just that whenever something crazy happens, Torchwood is usually there.  Oh, and it’s been around for a long time.”

“That about covers it,” Jones replied.  “Only the craziness usually has something to do with aliens.”

“You’re shitting me!” Rhys exclaimed.  “Aliens?  In Cardiff?  Pull the other one!”  He was beginning to wonder if this was some sort of joke, and April Fools’ Day had somehow snuck up on him.

Jones, however, looked very serious.  “There’s a Rift in Time and Space running through Cardiff.  It means we get all sorts of things coming through, and Torchwood deals with it all.  Our latest case was preventing an alien invasion by stopping a terrorist cell that blew up the M4 link road and an underground petrol pipeline that served the military.  The phones going down was a strike against the citywide communications network, and what the news _hasn’t_ said was that a prominent member of the City Council was murdered as well.”

Rhys wanted to laugh in the man’s face.  He looked around to see if there was some sort of hidden camera, and that he might end up on one of those candid camera shows where gullible idiots are pranked until someone pops up and lets them off the hook, usually a twenty-something wanna-be with a microphone and a plastic-looking smile.

There was nothing.  Only a nearly-empty pub and no one was paying them the least bit of attention.

“Prove it,” he challenged bluntly.  That was one way to get this obvious nutter off his case.

Jones’ lips twisted upward in a tiny smile.  “All right.”

He sat forward, his blue eyes catching Rhys’ gaze once more.   Just as Rhys was getting uncomfortable – which didn’t take very long at all – the other man’s eyes _changed_.

Rhys very nearly swallowed his tongue in shock.  What had once been very normal, if very blue, eyes had become like a cats’, with slitted pupils that widened slightly as his head moved out of the pale sunlight that was coming in through the window. They were still blue, but the colored parts were larger, rounder, obscuring more of the whites than human eyes did. 

And then, they were back to normal.

“Is that proof enough for you?” Jones inquired, the smile still on his face.

“That...” Rhys found himself speechless.  “What…”

“Would you like to see?”

Rhys nodded.  He couldn’t help it.  His curiosity was poking at him to find out just what Jones was, at the same time a part of him wanted to run and gibber in a corner somewhere.  His worldview had just been disrupted by a handsome man in a suit with a pair of very weird eyes and he couldn’t decide how to act about it.

Jones arose from his seat, and Rhys watched him walk up to the bar.  He said something to the barkeep, who pointed toward the hallway that obviously led toward the public toilets.  Jones said something else, and the man nodded. 

A wave of an elegant hand had Rhys up and out of the booth, and he followed Jones down the hallway, hoping he wasn’t going to be murdered in the alley or something. 

But they weren’t heading toward the emergency exit at the end of the hall.  Instead, Jones turned into another short hallway just before they reached the door, and Rhys found himself making his way up steps that had appeared pretty much out of nowhere. 

They were heading toward the roof, he realised.

By the time they reached the roof access, Rhys was a bit out of breath.  He vowed to try to get into better shape even as he was wondering just why Jones was taking him up there.  It wasn’t because of lack of witnesses; the barman had seen them, and in fact Jones must have asked if there was a way to get to the roof, so if Rhys suddenly did a header over the side of the building the police would investigate.  Of course, Jones was Special Ops – Torchwood – so who knew what he could get away with?

Damn it, Rhys needed to be a bit less paranoid. 

Something in his face must have showed, because Jones said, “I’m not going to do anything to you.  If anything, consider this the proof you wanted.”

“And your eyes doing that funny thing wasn’t enough?”  Rhys countered, squinting into the late day sunlight.

Jones chuckled.  “There’s more, believe me.”

Rhys opened his mouth to say he did, but the words didn’t leave him as a golden glow surrounded the young man, and his shape also began to change.

And before he could even react, Jones was gone.

A creature of green scales and wings stood in his place.

Rhys didn’t know whether to be terrified or excited.  Excited because it was a _fucking_ _dragon_ ; terrified because it was a _fucking_ _dragon_ and it was looking at him with those cat eyes and baring its teeth at him in what had to be a smile of some sort. 

“Are you convinced?” the dragon asked, its voice deep but still unmistakably that of Ianto Jones.

“Um…can I get back to you on that?”  Rhys didn’t know what else to say.

The dragon – Jones – laughed.  “It’s fine.  Please feel free to gawk.”

Rhys shuffled a bit closer, and raised a hand to see if his sense of touch could confirm what his eyes were telling him.   Then he stopped, and glanced up to make sure it was all right.

“Go ahead,” the dragon urged.

The scales were hard, and yet they were slick as silk under his fingertips.  “You’re real!” he exclaimed, feeling like a child who’d just learned that Santa Clause really did exist.

Dragons were real!

His Mam had told him stories of dragons, and he’d absorbed each and every one.  He’d been sad when she’d told him that dragons no longer existed, that they’d all been destroyed by foolish men who didn’t know the true nature of the creatures.

And yet, here one was, and Rhys wanted nothing more than to tell his Mam that she’d been wrong, that dragons were still out there.  He had a feeling that she’d be as pleased as he was.

“Are there any more of you?” he breathed in awe.

“No,” the dragon answered. “I am the last of my kind.  Humans have killed all the rest.”  His voice was ancient and full of mourning.

“Can’t say I think much of my own species for doing it,” Rhys answered, taking a step back. 

“Thank you for that,” the dragon said.  The golden glow faded into view once more, and in seconds the man had replaced the dragon.  “Do you believe me now?”

“What choice do I have?”  Rhys replied.  “Are you an alien, then?”

“No, I was born here, in the year 18 BC, in a small valley north of here.”

Rhys now knew why the ‘young man’s’ eyes looked so old.  “But you now catch aliens?” It was amazing just how accepting he was now, having just seen the impossible.

“Well, we catch the bad ones and help the good ones.  Let’s continue this back downstairs, shall we?”

Rhys accompanied Jones back into the pub, where their table hadn’t been touched.  That must have been something Jones had talked to the barkeep about when he’d asked about the roof. They slid into the booth once more, Rhys reaching for the pint that Jones had brought him.

Once again, he was stopped from picking it up.

“Before we go any further,” the dragon said, “I need to know if you’re going to keep what I’ve told you a secret.”

“C’mon mate,” Rhys scoffed, “who’s gonna believe it?”

“All right.  Then, I need to ask if you want to know everything.  It’s not too late to back out.”

Rhys considered.  In less than half an hour, his entire world had been turned upside down.  He’d been told that aliens exist, and had met a real-life dragon.  How could he back out now?

“I’m in,” he answered.  “I want to know everything.”

Jones smiled.   “Then let us get a couple of fresh pints and we’ll talk.”  He reached for the full pint at Rhys’ elbow.  “If you’d chosen to walk away, I was going to let you drink this.  I added a little something called Retcon to it.  It would have made you forget the entire conversation we’d had, if that was what you’d decided.  As it is…” he reached into the inside pocket of his suit, withdrawing a folded paper and pen, “you should probably sign this so my boss doesn’t throw a fit.”

Rhys unfolded the paper, and the words ‘Official Secrets Act’ were the first thing he saw.   “Give me that pen, mate, and I’ll sign.  Just don’t ask for my immortal soul, okay?  I kinda like it where it is.”

Jones laughed.  “I can’t promise that, Mr. Williams.  It’s the government, after all.”

“It’s Rhys, and I guess I can do without it in this case.”  He scribbled his signature across the line for it, then handed the form back.  Jones witnessed it, and replaced it in his pocket. 

“Now, Rhys…how about a fresh pint, and we’ll get rid of this one?”  He stood up, taking the tainted pint with him.   “And please, call me Ianto.”

“Fine, Ianto.”  Rhys looked up at the man…dragon.   “Would you really have made me forget all this?”

“If it meant the safety of myself and those I care for, then yes.”

Rhys could accept that.  “I just can’t believe you ruined a perfectly good pint over me.”

One eyebrow went up.  “You’d care more about the beer than losing your memories?”

“Well, it’s beer, isn’t it?”

Jones…Ianto…laughed.  “I believe I’m going to like you, Rhys.”

Rhys shrugged.  “I’m just a likeable kinda guy.”

Ianto snorted, and then turned back to the bar. 


	2. Chapter 2

 

**_29 June 2008_ **

 

Rhys lost track of time while talking to Ianto Jones.  He learned so much from the dragon in that time, over pints of bitter, and found that a lot of what he’d been told as a child had been spot on.  His Gran had been a devotee of what she’d called the Old Religion, and he had seen magic first-hand as a child.  So this was also a confirmation that she’d been correct, and it gave Rhys an even bigger sense of respect for his family.

He also learned a lot about Torchwood.  He couldn’t say he was happy that Gwen was involved in something that dangerous, but he could see the need for a team like that, working behind the scenes to protect the citizens of Cardiff from whatever might come through the Rift that Ianto had told him about.  The dragon had given him the history of Torchwood, even explaining about the various branches.  Rhys had been shocked that the terrorist attack on Canary Wharf had actually been an aborted alien invasion, and that the ghosts that had appeared beforehand had been robot things from another dimension.  He’d had it all wrong, and it made him realise just how much he’d rationalised away in order for it to make events like that fit into his personal worldview.

 It was dark outside when his phone beeped, signaling a text and the return of the mobile network.  Rhys dug it out of his packet, smiled when he saw it was from Gwen. 

_Where are you?  I’m at home.  Gx_

Rhys replied to it even as Ianto’s mobile also chirped.  The dragon checked it, also smiling.  “Looks like the phones are working now,” he pointed out, rather facetiously Rhys thought.  “Was that Gwen?”

“Yep. Says she’s home now.  Guess that means I should be getting on then.”  He stood, as did his new friend. 

“Me, too.  That was my mate, Jack, wanting to know if I could stop and pick up some tomatoes on the way home.” 

Rhys had heard about Jack, and if he’d had an issue believing that an actual dragon was living in Wales and was busily catching evil aliens for a living, then the idea of an immortal man being that dragon’s mate had been relatively easy to accept.  He still wasn’t sure he should have been told all of that, but Ianto had seemed fine with sharing.

“Thanks,” Rhys said, shaking Ianto’s hand.  “Thanks for trusting me with all of this.” 

“You’re welcome,” the dragon-in-man-form answered.  “There are still a few things we need to discuss, but it’s good that you’re accepting all of this so easily.”

“Well, once I got past the whole dragon thing all the rest was a walk in the park!”

Ianto laughed.  “Well, I’m off home.  Hope you have a good night, and please remember what I said about Gwen not being in a good mood.  It was a bad day and…well, to be honest she didn’t perform well and Jack had to yell at her about it.   Although now she can rant at you all she wants and not worry about the consequences.”

Ianto hadn’t gone into too much detail about what had taken place that day, but Rhys had gotten the impression that Gwen hadn’t been at her best.  While he hadn’t said anything bad about his fiancée Rhys had concluded that she and Ianto didn’t get along well.  He’d wanted to ask but it seemed as if Ianto hadn’t wanted to be overly critical of Gwen to him. 

Still, that very silence had Rhys wondering just what had gone on between the two.  The urge to know had been strong, but he had held himself back.  He knew his Gwen could be abrasive and judgmental, and he could assume that had been the case in this.   But why she could possibly be that way toward Ianto – who was a decent bloke even if he was a mythical creature – he couldn’t even guess.

Perhaps Ianto hadn’t wanted to vent at Gwen’s fiancé about what went on between them, which made sense.  Rhys had to respect him for it, although he did want to know what had gone on between them.  Gwen was also prone to making snap judgments when it came to people, and perhaps that was what had occurred.

He was at the flat in minutes; he’d chosen a pub close to the flat so he could get home in a decent time, but of course that had been before he’d met up with Ianto.  The lights were on as he made his way up the walkway, and up the stairs to the flat he shared with Gwen.

The moment he entered Gwen was hugging him.  “Sorry, when you weren’t home I was worried,” she said, pulling back.

Rhys kissed her lightly.  “Sorry about that.  When shit started happening I figured you’d be late, so I stopped off at the local for a couple of pints.”  He explained about shutting down for the day as he let Gwen pull him toward the couch.  He wrapped his arm around her, tucking her into his side. 

“There wasn’t much we could do,” Gwen answered.  “It was horrible…and…damn, I can’t even talk about it.  Sorry.”

Rhys grinned.  “Actually, you can.”

Gwen pulled back to look him in the eyes.  “What do you mean?”

“I had a mate of yours come up to me in the pub, and had me sign one of those Official Secrets Act forms.  He told me all about Torchwood.  I tell you, I had a hard time believing him at first, but now…it’s fantastic, Gwen!  I can’t believe you do what you do.”  He may have been worried about her, but he also couldn’t help but be proud.

Instead of looking happy, Gwen was frowning.  “Who talked to you?”

“Ianto, says he’s your boss.  Nice bloke, too.”

Gwen went pale.  “I can’t believe he did that without asking me!”

Rhys lost the smile he’d been wearing.  “Why should he ask you?  They didn’t ask me when they hired you.”

“You don’t understand,” Gwen exclaimed.  “You shouldn’t even be talking to him! He’s dangerous, Rhys.”

Rhys rolled his eyes.  “He’s a dragon, Gwen.  Of course he’s dangerous!   Have you seen the size of his teeth?  And I’m not even getting into the whole fire-breathing thing!”

“He told you that, too?” Now Gwen looked furious.

“Yeah, he did.  It’s too bad I can’t tell Mam, she’d probably make one of those fangirly noises if she knew there was an actual, live dragon out there.”  He narrowed his eyes.  “What’s wrong with you?  I thought you’d be happy that you wouldn’t have to hide your job from me anymore.”

“It’s not that,” Gwen answered, jumping up and beginning to pace.  “It’s just that Ianto should never have approached you.  He had no right!”

“I don’t know why you’re so upset.  Ianto’s a pretty decent guy.  I even invited him and Jack over to footie with the lads one weekend.” He snorted.  “Imagine that…a two thousand-year-old Welsh dragon, and he’s not into sport!  I’ve promised to fix that.”

“You can’t see him again, Rhys,” she demanded.  “Swear to me you won’t go near him.”

“I’ll swear no such thing!  What’s got your knickers in a twist about him, anyway?”   Rhys was sincerely curious about why Gwen didn’t get on with Ianto.

“He endangered every member of our team when he brought a dangerous monster into the Hub,” she spat.

“You mean Lisa?”  Ianto had been quite open about that whole thing, when Rhys had asked when it had been the last time he’d seen another dragon.   “I’m not sure I’d consider her a monster, although what Torchwood One did to her…”

“He told you about that, too?” she asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah, poor sod.  Although I hope you’d fight that hard to save me if something like that happened to me.”

“Nothing like that would ever happen to you!  You’re human! How can you defend him anyway?  You don’t even know him!”

“No, I don’t know him, but I’d like to.”  She might not have said much, but Rhys was getting a glimpse of the picture into the relationship between Gwen and Ianto.  “And who said something like that wouldn’t happen to me?  I could get grabbed by any of the aliens you all chase after.  Hell, even those Cybermen things…I can’t believe I thought that was drugs in the water!  I feel a complete idiot over that, let me tell you!  And I’ll defend him because he’s just an ordinary guy – sure, he’s ancient and a dragon – but he’s just as human as anyone else.”

“But he’s not human!  He shouldn’t even be on the team, let alone going behind my back and talking to you!”

“Gwen,” Rhys sighed, “I didn’t realise you were this shallow.”

She looked as if he’d just physically slapped her.  “I’m not shallow!”

“Well, you sound it.  You apparently can’t see beyond the fact that Ianto is a dragon.  Hell, you’re Welsh!  You should be proud to know a true Welsh dragon!  I know I am.”

“How can you say that?” 

She was getting even angrier, but Rhys couldn’t find it in him to back off.  “My Gran was a follower of the Old Religion, and I was raised with stories about dragons.  They were as big a part of nature as magic, and it’s a shame both are all but gone.”

Gwen gaped at him.  “There’s no such thing as magic!”

“Which is exactly why magic is dying out.  People just don’t believe anymore.”   Rhys remembered being saddened by his Mam and Gran’s stories and how much he wished he could somehow bring magic back.  “I lived on stories of Merlin and Gwydion and the Great Dragons.  My Gran was casting minor healing spells for as long as she was alive.  Of course there’s magic, it’s just it’s not around much anymore.”

“I can’t believe you’re buying into his shit,” Gwen swore.  “Are you that gullible that you’d believe in stuff like that?”

“Gwen, I’m not buying into anything.  I’m just telling you how I was raised.  And frankly I’m ashamed of you for badmouthing my family’s beliefs like that.”  He stood.  “I might not practice how my Gran did, but I still respect her ways.  And meeting Ianto Jones just confirmed for me that she was right, and I’m grateful for that.  Personally, I’d like to know what, exactly, you have against him.  And if it’s because he’s a dragon, I’ll be very disappointed in you.  I never took you to be prejudiced like that.  Just because he’s a mythical creature doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.”

“Rhys, sweetheart, please listen,” she pleaded, taking his hands in hers.  “You don’t know him the way I do.  You haven’t worked with him for the last ten months.  You haven’t seen what I have.”

“Then explain it to me, Gwen.  Because I’m having a really hard time reconciling what you’re saying with what I heard today.”  Rhys didn’t want to think badly of his new friend, but perhaps Gwen had a perspective he didn’t.  After all, she was right…she saw Ianto every day.  She would have gotten a read on his character over that time, and he’d only known the dragon for a couple of hours.

“From the very first day,” she began, “Ianto hid himself from me…from us.  I only found out by accident weeks after I was hired.  In our job you cannot hide things like that from your teammates…it could be dangerous to those who don’t know.”

“Dangerous, how?” Rhys wanted to know.

“Well, what if I’d put myself in front of a bullet for him, and not known that he was bloody invincible?  I could have been killed saving him when he didn’t even need to be saved!”

Okay, that was a point.  “But don’t you think he has a right to privacy?  Besides, doesn’t the rest of the team know about him?  He most likely didn’t think he knew you well enough yet to say anything.”

“That’s not the point, Rhys!  You can’t hide something like that!”

“But from what Ianto told me, Jack did the very same thing.  You’re not lambasting him.”

“Jack is different,” she dismissed.  “I knew from the beginning that he was immortal.  And I can’t believe Ianto even told you that!”

Rhys shrugged.  “Apparently he had permission.  But it seems like you’re saying that, as long as you know, it doesn’t matter about anyone else.”  She was holding the two men to a completely different ideal, and it was a side to Gwen he really hadn’t seen before. 

Her eyes widened.  “That’s not what I meant at all!”

“But it’s what you said.  As long as you were in on the secret, it didn’t matter that no one knew that Jack was immortal.  But, you didn’t know about Ianto being a dragon and everyone else did.  Double standards, Gwen.  I didn’t know you were like that.”

“Is that what you think?  That I’m that petty?”  She pouted, and that expression on her was dangerous.

“I’m just thinking you’re not taking everything into consideration,” he answered, not really wanting to argue but at the same time he just couldn’t understand her opinion of Ianto.  He’d been impressed with the dragon, but yes he hadn’t known him long at all.  Maybe he was enraptured with the notion of a real, live dragon in Cardiff?  Of a Rift through the city that dumped alien shit and that there was a team that actually cleaned all that up? 

“All right,” he went on, “besides him not telling you he was an actual dragon – which, I’ll be honest, I think was within his rights to withhold it from anyone he chose – what exactly has Ianto done to deserve your mistrust?”

“He has done what he could to deliberately sabotage my job.  When I was hired, one of my duties was to be police liaison, a job that he’d formerly done.  Every time I try to do my job, he buts in and does it instead, not even giving me a chance.”

“And what does Jack say about that?”

“He’s Jack’s lover,” Gwen snorted.  “Of course Jack is gonna side with him.”

“That doesn’t sound very professional,” Rhys commented.  “Isn’t he Jack’s second in command?”

“It’s a position he doesn’t even deserve!”

“But he’s been with Torchwood for nearly eight years.  Who do you think should be second then?”

“I think is should be me.”

All right, now that took balls.  Rhys might not know the situation within Torchwood, but even he knew a person wasn’t elevated to a position of authority after less than a year’s service, unless there was something extraordinary about them.  And, as much as he loved Gwen, he just couldn’t see it.  “Why do you think that?” he asked, curious as to her motivation for even considering herself for the job.

“I was also hired by Jack to show the team what they’re fighting for,” she explained.  “I’m the humanity in Torchwood; that’s what Jack said.  He needed someone to reinject that humanity, that sense of compassion, back into what Torchwood did.  Jack felt they’d lost that, and I can’t say I blame him.  Just today, we had a case where this woman had been brainwashed, and all I wanted to do was give her hope that things would get better.  Instead, Toshiko shot her in cold blood!  Beth wasn’t going to hurt anyone, but that didn’t matter because she was seen as a threat.  Now tell me, Rhys…would you want to work with someone who had such callous disregard for other lives?”

Rhys had the distinct impression that what he was hearing wasn’t the whole story.  Certainly Gwen seemed to believe what she was saying, but there was something missing from what she was telling him.  “You’re talking about the terrorist attacks today, right?”

She looked a little surprised at his question.  “Yes, I am.”

“When you said this woman was brainwashed, was she one of the terrorists?”

Gwen frowned.  “Yes, but as I said, she wasn’t herself.”

“And what would have happened if she’d killed anyone, even if she was messed up?  I mean, she could have killed you!”

“That wasn’t going to happen!”

“How do you know?  Hell, Gwen, I don’t know the whole story but even I know you can’t take chances with terrorists.  I mean, look at what’s happened over in the US!  You remember 9/11, right?  And couldn’t alien terrorists be one hundred percent worse?

“You’re right, you don’t know the entire story,” she answered.  “I was there, and you weren’t.”

“No, but I’m sure if I asked Ianto would be glad to tell me his side of what went on today.”

“You’d take his word over mine?” she asked incredulously.

“Not necessarily, but there are two sides to every story, and I’d like to get both before I make any sort of decision on what actually happened.”

Rhys couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  He did love Gwen, but he couldn’t let her perception colour his own.  He wanted to know more, and there was only one place he could go to get that information.

He pulled out his mobile and dialed.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this would wrap up in three chapters, but it looks like it's going to be four...

 

**_29 June 2008_ **

 

Rhys knew that Ianto didn’t live in a cave, but he couldn’t help but be a bit impressed by the multi-storey Victorian that was at the address the dragon had given him when he’d called.  The front garden was fairly good sized behind the stone wall the encircled the property, with a walkway leading from the driveway up to the dark red-painted front door.  Rhys rang the bell with just a small bit of hesitation, knowing they were imposing at this time of night.

On the trip over, Rhys couldn’t help but notice that Gwen got twitchier and more on edge the closer they got.  He’d asked her what the problem was several times, but she’d never responded. 

Rhys really didn’t want to think that Gwen was lying to him.  He would have much preferred that, somehow, Ianto Jones had taken him for some sort of idiot and had played a joke on him.  But Gwen herself had verified a lot of what he’d been told at the pub, and Rhys couldn’t deny the little voice in his head asking him that, if Ianto told the truth about most, then why not all?

Gwen had lied to him in the past.  Rhys knew that.  Hell, her very job meant she’d had to keep some pretty important secrets from him.  But he’d also caught her before she’d even gotten hired into Torchwood, and he’d called her on it when the lies were obvious.  That left him wondering how many not-so-obvious lies she had told him that didn’t have anything to do with the Official Secrets Act.

He would always stand by his fiancée, and he hated doubting her.   There were only a couple of things that could possibly sour their relationship, and nothing he’d heard so far would change his mind about that.  But he felt he deserved to know what Gwen had been up to, and he knew he needed both sides of the story in order to make any sort of decision. 

One thing he did know, though: it didn’t matter what happened in that house tonight, there was no fucking way he was going back to _not_ knowing about Torchwood.

The door opened, revealing a sombre Ianto Jones.  He’d changed out of his suit, and had on jeans and ‘Red Dwarf’ tee-shirt, of all things.  “Welcome,” he greeted them, throwing the door open wide.  “Please, come in.”

Rhys did so, followed by Gwen.  He couldn’t help but notice that she really didn’t want to be there, and he might have told her to wait in the car if it weren’t important that she be with him.  Rhys was determined to know the truth, and he couldn’t do that without her presence there to answer some of the questions he had.

“Would you mind removing your shoes?” Ianto asked politely.  “It’s…a tradition, I guess you would day.”

It was then that Rhys saw that Ianto’s feet were bare, and be bent over to unlace his work boots.  “Is it some sort of dragony thing?” he asked curiously.

Ianto chuckled.  “Not really, it’s just a very long-standing habit from back in the Roman days, when people would remove their sandals to keep from tracking dust and dirt into the house. Of course, there’d also be slaves too, waiting to wash your feet as well…”

Rhys kicked his boots off, and seeing the mat beside the door with shoes already on it – a pair of black dress shoes, some trainers, and another set of sturdy boots – he quickly sat his own there as well.  “Did you have slaves?”

“No.  It’s against dragon law.  But Father would sometimes purchase slaves in the market and then set them free.  They’d often stay out of gratitude, and of course Father would pay them for their work.  Some of those ex-slaves became genuine dragon friends.”

Rhys wondered at all the history Ianto had seen; all of the advancements that had been made since he’d been born.  He would have thought it wonderful, if not for the fact that Rhys knew, after their conversation at the pub, that the dragon had been very lonely until he’d met his Jack.  How terrible was living forever?  He really didn’t want to find out.

“Jack,” Ianto called over his shoulder as he ushered Rhys and Gwen into the lounge.  It was a large space, and Rhys wasn’t ashamed to admit that he immediately began drooling over the large-screen television set on the entertainment centre that dominated one wall.  He wondered vaguely how hard it would be to talk Ianto and Jack into hosting the next match at their place…also, there was this wonderful smell, and Rhys realised that they would have been interrupting dinner. 

“Gwen,” another voice spoke, and Rhys turned to see a tall man coming from what must have been the kitchen, a tea towel tossed over one shoulder.  He was handsome, dressed a bit old-fashioned – he had on braces, no less! – with dark hair and blue eyes, and Rhys couldn’t help but feel just a tiny bit frumpy compared to him.  “Rhys,” the man said, coming toward him and extending his hand, his lips raised in what might have been a salacious grin.  “It’s good to finally meet you.  Captain Jack Harkness, but you can call me Jack.”

Bloody hell, was the man flirting with him?

“Stop it,” Ianto said, his eyes rolling good-naturedly.

“I was just saying hello,” Jack pouted. 

Gwen seemed a bit irritated by the display, and Rhys wanted to know if it was because another man had been flirting with _him_ , or if it was because he wasn’t flirting with _her_. 

“Why don’t you both sit down?” Ianto invited, waving his hand toward the large sofa that was facing the large television.  “Can I get you both some coffee?”

Rhys opened his mouth to reply, but Gwen beat him to it.  “No,” she answered brusquely.

Ianto shrugged.  “Suit yourself.”  He took a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs, and Jack propped himself up on the arm, his hand on Ianto’s shoulder.  “I had hoped to see you again, Rhys; I just didn’t know it was going to be so soon.”

Once again, Rhys was going to answer, but Gwen snapped, “What gave you the right to even approach Rhys in the first place?”

“You’re not glad that you don’t have to hide things from your own fiancé anymore?” Jack inquired. 

“It should have been my choice!  And you shouldn’t have sent Ianto in the first place.”

“We didn’t ask him if it was all right to hire you,” Ianto pointed out. 

“Everyone else has someone on the outside,” Jack added.  “Someone they could talk to.”

“That’s beside the point,” Gwen argued.  “If I’d known you were going to talk to my fiancé, I would have been there!”

“Why?” Jack asked.  “What difference would it have made if you’d been?”

“Then Rhys wouldn’t have gotten Ianto’s view of events.”

“And what makes Ianto’s view so wrong?”

“Because he isn’t human!”

“Why does that even really matter, Gwen?  Ianto is your teammate and your Second.  He knows what he’s doing.”

“He can’t understand what it’s like to be human,” Gwen answered hotly.   “You hired me for that purpose, Jack…to remind the team what it means to be human.  I can’t even do that with…a dragon.”

Rhys listened as Gwen and Jack argued, and he wasn’t certain he liked what he was hearing.  Not so much from Jack’s side; he had a point, that it really didn’t matter who’d told him about Torchwood in the end, although he would have liked it if Gwen had been the one to do it.  But Gwen’s attitude toward Ianto and his not being human…that didn’t settle well with Rhys at all.  From what he’d seen – and yes, he’d only spent a couple of hours with the dragon – Ianto Jones was very much human. 

He looked over at the dragon.  His face was impassive, but there was a combination of sadness and anger in his eyes that made Rhys want to shiver slightly.

“Yes,” Jack admitted.  “I did hire you because I thought the team had somehow lost its way.  But I’ve come to realise that I was wrong.  My team wasn’t missing humanity at all.”

“But they do,” Gwen answered.  “They’re down in that Hub all day, and it can change a person not being around others.”

“No, Gwen…they _are_ human.    They’re even more human than you are, because you’ve never really had to suffer loss as they have.”  Jack leaned forward slightly, his sharp eyes glaring right at Gwen.  “Toshiko risked going to prison in order to save her mother from terrorists.  Owen lost who could have been the love of his life to an alien that had destroyed her brain, and yet he found a new purpose and a new love.  And Ianto,” he leaned back, touching the dragon on the shoulder once more, “risked everything to save the only other dragon living when human beings had tortured her, and yet he chose that very humanity when Lisa proved to be a danger.”  He sighed.  “I’m only sorry I didn’t see it before, because I would have made certain the Retcon had held.  You wouldn’t have ever remembered us at all, and now we wouldn’t be having this discussion for what feels like the hundredth time.”

“Rhys,” Ianto said, “I’m sorry you have to be a witness to this.  I tried very hard not to say anything against Gwen and her performance when we’d met earlier –“

“That’s fine,” Rhys answered, not quite believing what he was hearing.  Did Gwen really feel that way about the people she worked with?  That they didn’t have any sort of humanity?  But how couldn’t they, if they saved the world on a semi-regular basis? 

“Gwen,” Jack went on, “we’ve gone round and round about this, and to honest I’m quite tired of it.  Now you bring Rhys into it –“

“Ianto’s the one who talked to him,” she responded.  “He’s the one who brought Rhys into it.”

“But Ianto wasn’t the one who’s currently airing their dirty laundry in front of their fiancé.”

“Just, stop,” Ianto interrupted.  He looked tired.  “I’m sick of this arguing. Gwen,” he looked at her, “Rhys wants answers, he doesn’t want to witness us calling you on the carpet for behaviour you refuse to fix.”  He glanced away and toward Rhys himself.  “I take it you have questions that were raised when you spoke to Gwen?”

“Yeah, I did.”  Rhys was glad that someone had called off the slinging.  “I wanna know what happened today with the terrorists.”

Ianto sighed.  “I think you mean you want to know what happened with Beth.”  He suddenly looked wrecked, and very old.

Jack put his arm around him.  “You okay with this?” he asked gently.

“Yes.  Would you get my laptop from our bedroom, please?  I think perhaps Rhys would prefer to see it instead of simply hearing about it.”

Jack got up and left the lounge, heading up a flight of stairs at the other end of the room.  Ianto rubbed a hand over his eyes.  “We can let you see the actual CCTV footage o what happened in the Hub today.  Unfortunately there’s no sound, but it should give you a fairly clear picture of events.”

“You have a direct feed from the Hub to here?”  Gwen asked incredulously. 

“I do.  Toshiko set it up for me after the Brynblaidd, when I was on medical leave.”  He glanced at Rhys.  “I damaged a wing trying to stop someone from stealing our vehicle.”  He cocked his head.  “Did you hear the news about the cannibals being found in the countryside?”

Rhys froze in shock.  “Bloody hell…you were involved in that?  I thought you lot only handled aliens!”  He could recall hearing about it on the news and being completely gobsmacked by the very idea of a village full of cannibals.  “They said some of them died in some sort of fire…was that you?”

“It was,” Ianto admitted.  “I let loose my flame while in their abattoir.  It was…horrifying.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re understating that a bit, mate.”  He couldn’t help but be in awe of the dragon, honestly.

“And he murdered a bunch of those people when he did that,” Gwen scolded. 

Rhys snorted.  “You think that’s murder, Gwen?  I’d say it was self-defence, if Ianto was actually in their abattoir at the time.  And how many people had they actually eaten before Torchwood showed up, anyway?”

“It had been going on for years,” Jack answered, coming around the couch, holding an open laptop in both hands.  He set it down on the coffee table in front of Rhys, and on the screen he could make out a twisting blue design that very nearly made him dizzy to look at.  He then rejoined Ianto at the dragon’s chair.  “We’re talking hundreds of people they’d killed and butchered.”

“That’s disgusting.”  Rhys wanted to gag. 

“I sometimes don’t understand humanity,” Ianto confessed.  “They do the most horrible things to each other and yet they consider themselves the highest form of life on Earth.  No offence, anyone.”

Gwen snorted, but Rhys agreed.  He watched the telly at night, and he’d heard all sorts of reports of what man did to man. 

“And that’s not counting what alien races want to do to us,” Jack added.  “Rhys, I assume Gwen told you about what happened today?”

“Ianto first,” Rhys answered. “Then Gwen filled in more.”  This was it’ this was where he’d find out what had happened and if Gwen’s concerns were real.  He was almost hoping they were, because he didn’t want to think that Gwen wasn’t being honest with him.

“Then let me give you the basics that are going to be part of the report I’m filing tomorrow, and then we can show you the footage from the CCTV,” Jack said.  “We managed to stumble upon an alien terrorist cell called Cell 1-1-4.  They are sent by an alien race in order to gather intelligence on their target planet and to be in a position to cause havoc on a grand scale.  It was that alien cell that was responsible for losing the phones and the explosion out near the M4.  In the course of the investigation we managed to capture a member of that cell.”

“Beth,” Gwen interrupted, frowning.

“Yes, Beth,” Ianto confirmed.  “She was a young woman, married to a man she loved very much…but her human existence was a lie.  It was programmed into her, and at the proper signal that humanity would have sloughed away, revealing the alien within.”

Already the story he’d been told by Gwen was different from what Jack and Ianto were saying.  He’d thought that the terrorist had been brainwashed into killing, but it looked as if it was the other way around: the alien had been programmed into being normal.  It seemed fantastical, but in a way it made perfect sense.

Rhys couldn’t help but notice just how upset Ianto seemed at the mention of this alien’s name, and he wondered why.  But he didn’t interrupt, wanting to hear what they had to say.

“Beth was human,” Gwen snapped. 

“And this is where we disagree,” Jack replied.  “You see, once we confronted Beth with what she was, she tried to help us stop the other three members of the cell.  She did succeed with one of them, and if she hadn’t Cardiff wouldn’t be here anymore.”    He glanced down at Ianto.  “Remind me to call the MoD tomorrow about those nukes, all right?”

Ianto nodded.

“Wait,” Rhys exclaimed in shock.  ‘”There were nuclear weapons?”

Jack nodded.  “There was a stockpile just up the M4 link road that we didn’t know about until it was almost too late.  Don’t worry though; I’m going to get them moved immediately.  But anyway, Beth was a hero today.”

“She deserved better than to be shot down like a wild animal,” Gwen said belligerently.

“The last thing Beth wanted to be responsible for hurting anyone,” Jack replied sharply.  “She made Ianto promise to stop her if she tried.”

“Perhaps this is where Rhys needs to see the footage?” Ianto suggested.  “Just hit ‘enter’ on the laptop and you’ll see the bone of contention.”

Rhys leaned forward and did so.  Ianto was right about the sound, but he could easily make out a metal walkway of some sort, the camera looking down on it and an open area below that looked like it had some sort of high-tech equipment in it.

He watched raptly as Gwen and another woman came into shot, and then Ianto joined them.  Some sort of argument was going on, and suddenly the woman’s arm seemed to change into a nasty-looking sword-like weapon, and she was threatening Gwen with it.  Ianto was moving…

But suddenly the woman fell backward, and Rhys could see the blood on the woman’s shirt. 

He shivered.  He couldn’t help it.  Gwen had been in danger, and someone had saved her life.  Rhys wondered who it had been, so he could thank them properly.

His heartbeat was thundering in his ears as he reached over and hit the ‘enter’ key once more.  The picture paused, and he could see that Gwen was gone, and Ianto was kneeling beside the dead alien, but he couldn’t make out what he was doing.

“She wasn’t going to hurt me,” Gwen insisted.

“Bloody fuck, Gwen!” Rhys exclaimed.   “She was gonna stab you!”

“No she wasn’t,” his fiancée disagreed.  “Beth felt he didn’t have a choice but to die, so she simply threatened me.  Tosh didn’t need to shoot her.”

“This is where we don’t agree,” Jack said.  “Beth had made Ianto swear to stop her if she tried to hurt anyone, and we couldn’t take the chance that the programming that had given Beth her human personality was breaking.”

“She was forcing your hand,” Gwen demanded.  “She could have been saved if you’d only given her a bit of hope in the future.”

“Rhys,” Jack turned to him,” I want to ask your opinion on something.”

Rhys nodded, even while he was still processing what he’d seen.  Gwen had nearly been killed, and he didn’t care what she was saying.  That alien had been threatening his Gwen with a whacking great blade, and Gwen had been saved by her teammates.    

He was shaken to the core, faced with just how truly dangerous Gwen’s job was.   Of course he’d realised it was, but seeing it on screen was something completely different and he hated the idea that Cardiff needed something like Torchwood to protect it.  In was necessary though, and his Gwen was a part of that dangerous world.

Rhys swallowed, hard.  Because it suddenly came to him that this job would be the death of the woman he loved, and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to accept that.

“If there was something fatally wrong with you,” Jack said, “would you want to know the truth, or would you prefer to be given false hope even though nothing could be done about your condition?”

He didn’t even need to think about it.  “That’s easy, mate.  I’d want to know the truth.”  He suddenly put it together, and could see how this had gone.  They’d offered this Beth person the truth about who she was, but Gwen hadn’t accepted that and had wanted to lie to her in order to help her somehow cope with the situation.

Gwen was staring at him.  “You wouldn’t want hope to live?” she asked incredulously.

“No, I’d want to know exactly what was happening to me so I could prepare for it.  If there wasn’t any way to make me better, I’d hope someone would be honest with me about it.”

He didn’t miss the relieved expression on Ianto’s face, and the angry one on Gwen’s.  So, this was their current bone of contention…and yes, Rhys could tell that there had been many more in the past.  Ianto had been honest about this woman’s chances, while Gwen had been trying to get her to fight against the inevitable. 

But then, Gwen had always been horribly optimistic in that way.  It didn’t mean she was right, but he also knew that she’d never admit to being wrong.

“I can’t believe you’re siding with them,” she accused him.

“I’m not siding with anyone, Gwen,” Rhys protested.  “I’m telling you how I feel.  I just saw a woman try to kill you, and you’re saying she wasn’t going to?  How could you even tell?  It looked certainly real to me, and I want to hug the person who pulled the trigger.  Because, if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t be sitting here now fighting about it.  You’d be dead, and Jack and Ianto would be at our flat, informing me that you’d died in the line of duty.  Gwen, you’re idealism shouldn’t come at the cost of your life.”

Jack was nodding in agreement.  “This is exactly what we wish you’d learn, Gwen.  But, unfortunately, we know this isn’t going to happen.  Which makes you a liability to Torchwood.”

Rhys was all for what Jack had said…until he let the last part of that sentence sink it.

What the hell did that mean?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this. Next up is another short, and then we'll head into "To the Last Man". Thanks, everyone!

 

**_29 June 2008_ **

****

“I’m not a liability!” Gwen shouted, jumping to her feet.  “I’ve been a productive member of this team.”

Jack shook his head, and he looked sad.  “No, Gwen.  You haven’t.  You had so much promise…but you let your prejudices and your stubbornness keep you from being the amazing operative that I saw in you that first day.  You didn’t live up to the expectations I had for you, and I’ve never been more disappointed.”

“Wait a bloody minute!’ Rhys exclaimed, grabbing Gwen’s hand to keep her from moving toward the two others.  Because, if there was one thing he did know about his fiancé, was that she’d most likely do something that she’d regret later.  “Are you saying you’re firing my Gwen?”

He wasn’t at all certain how he thought about that.  Yes, Gwen’s job was extremely dangerous judging from what he’d seen on the laptop, but at the same time he was more than a bit proud of her for doing it.  On the other hand, there was a part of him that was relieved, that she wouldn’t be put at risk anymore. 

Despite that, he was quite angry about her being fired like that, and was perfectly willing to stand up for the woman he loved. 

“We are,” Jack admitted.  “It’s been a while coming, but we have to let her go.”

“It’s not just one thing,” Ianto added, before Rhys could even begin to rant on Gwen’s behalf.  “I can deal with her disrespecting me, but she’s done it with every member of the team.”

“You never gave me a chance,” Gwen retorted.  Rhys stood beside her, to offer his support, knowing that she could handle herself but ready to step in if he was needed. 

“We gave you every chance,” Jack answered.  “I put you on liaison duty with the Cardiff police, and all you did was alienate everyone you dealt with.  It got so bad that Detective Inspector Swanson actually called Ianto on vacation when you told her he wouldn’t be coming back to Torchwood when all he was on was bereavement leave.”

“He didn’t deserve to come back,” she snapped.  “He’d brought that…thing, into the Hub and endangered us all.”

Rhys frowned.  Ianto had shared with him the story of his attempt to save Lisa, and he wasn’t happy with Gwen calling that poor woman – dragon – a thing. 

“That’s not your call to make,” Jack said.  “It was mine, and I would have done the same thing for any member of the team who’d tried to save someone they loved.  Hell, I would have done it for you if something had happened to Rhys.”

“Nothing was going to happen to Rhys,” Gwen answered hotly. 

“You can’t know that,” Ianto said. 

“I made a mistake making you liaison,” Jack admitted.  “I thought, with you being an ex-copper, that you could relate to them in a way that Ianto couldn’t.  I was wrong.  All you did was make the police you did deal with angry at Torchwood.  You refused to respect them, and so they turned that against the entire team.  It took Ianto a lot of work to get us back into their good graces.”

“I was only following your example,” Gwen defended herself.  “You walk all over the police at scenes!”

“I do, yes.  But I do it in order to help protect any innocents from getting hurt.  The liaison’s job is to smooth the feathers I ruffle, and I even told you that in your training.  But you didn’t listen, and your arrogance nearly ruined our rapport with the locals.”

Rhys listened as the two men explained their reasoning for taking Gwen off liaison duty, and found he couldn’t fault it.  If Gwen had really made it that hard to deal with the police, he could understand why she’d have been reassigned.  Still, it didn’t seem enough to fire her, and he said so.

“If it were only just that,” Jack sighed.  He suddenly looked tired.  “There’s your blatant disregard of proper procedure.  You only follow those procedures when it suits you, and you ignore what you don’t like.”

“The procedures are wrong.”

“No, Gwen.  Our procedures are there for very good reasons, like the one against messing with alien tech.  You’ve done it several times; the last one being the dimension jumper that sent our Ianto to another world and exchanged him with another version of himself.”

“And,” Ianto added, “when that other Ianto needed support from our team in order to get back home, you treated him like an enemy.”

“How do you know he wasn’t?”  Gwen challenged.  “He could have been sent to infiltrate us.”

Jack rolled his eyes.  “You forget; Owen saw your little confrontation with the other Ianto.  You didn’t trust him, and it didn’t have anything to do with infiltration.  In fact I believe you claimed that any version of Ianto couldn’t be trusted, and that, when you found out you weren’t on the team in that other dimension but Rhys was, you threw a hissy fit and claimed that you weren’t a member of Torchwood there because you’d tried to show that other Jack that any Ianto was a bad Ianto.  And you contended that there was no way Rhys could be on the team, because he wouldn’t be able to handle Torchwood.”

“Seems like he’s handling it just fine,” Ianto added, nodding toward Rhys.

Rhys was staring at Gwen and nearly missed the gesture.  “You really think I couldn’t handle Torchwood?” he asked, hurt.  He couldn’t believe that she thought so little of him. 

“Rhys,” she tried to calm him, “that isn’t what I meant –“

“We have CCTV footage of that as well,” Jack volunteered.  “We could show you the entire meeting and the subsequent confrontation if you’d like.”

Gwen went red in the face.  “You’re trying to turn Rhys against me,” she accused.

‘No, we aren’t,” Ianto denied.  “Why would we?  What sort of reason would we have to do that?”

“Because you hate me,” she said.  “You always have, because I took your place in the Hub and with Jack.”

Rhys narrowed his eyes, hoping that Gwen wasn’t saying what he thought she was saying.   “You slept with him?” he asked angrily.  He of course knew of Jack and Ianto’s relationship, the dragon having told him about it.

“Goddess, no,” Jack shuddered.   “Although I admit I flirted…but I flirt with everyone.”

Gwen paled.  “No, Rhys, that’s not what I meant!  I meant in Jack’s esteem, not his bed.”  She tugged on his hand.  “I think it’s time for us to go –“

“No, it’s not.”   Rhys wanted to hear more.  While he did believe her that she hadn’t slept with Jack – and it was Jack’s reaction more than anything that convinced him – he needed to know the rest. 

The thing was, Rhys was very familiar with Gwen’s personality faults, and he could see where what Jack and Ianto were saying would fit into those faults.  Yes, he still wanted to defend Gwen but he was being given some very serious food for thought.  “I think we need to get this all out in the open now,”

Jack rubbed his eyes.  “I’m really sorry, Rhys.  This should be aired out at work, and not here.”

“It’s fine.  I needed to know just what was going on, and what Gwen had against Ianto.”  He could tell both of them weren’t happy, and while Rhys thought he deserved to hear both sides he was beginning to regret doing this now. 

Jack and Ianto glanced toward each other, and it was as if they were having some sort of silent conversation.  It didn’t last long, and then Ianto seemed to collapse into his chair.  “She doesn’t like me because I hid the fact that I was a dragon from her, and she found out by accident.  She didn’t care for the rest of the team knowing and I didn’t share it with her as well.”

“But that was the tip of the iceberg,” Jack added.  “And I have to admit my fault in this as well.  I should have listened when Ianto counseled against hiring her.”

“Of course he didn’t want to hire me,” Gwen scoffed.  “He knew I was a danger to him.”

“No,” the dragon said.  “But I did – and do – sense a darkness within you, and didn’t trust you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Rhys asked.  There was something dark within his Gwen? 

“The only thing I could compare it to was, somewhere in her family’s past, an ancestor came into contact with something dark and it somehow tainted them.  What that was, I have no idea.”

Could that be the reason his mother was so adamant against Rhys marrying her?  While she didn’t have any magic herself, his Mam could still tell certain things.  Could she also sense this so-called darkness?

“You cannot believe this nonsense!” Gwen exclaimed.

“I told you my Gran was a follower of the old religion, and she had certain powers.”  Rhys took her by the shoulders.  “There are more things in this world than what we can see or feel.”  Besides, he knew dragons were magical, and had senses beyond those of humans.  If he’d felt something dark about Gwen…

Rhys couldn’t see it himself, and he wished he could.  He decided to ask his Mam about it at the first opportunity.

“It’s not just Gwen’s issues with Ianto,” Jack said.  “Although he’s my mate, and I take offence at anyone who dismisses him the way she does.”

Ianto clasped Jack’s hand.  “Jack’s right.  I can handle myself, and besides if we fired everyone who argued with me Owen would have been gone years ago.”  He made it sound light, as if he was trying to bring up the mood a bit.

Jack rolled his eyes, and then turned back to Rhys.  “There’s her willful insubordination, her unwillingness to accept that there are things she just doesn’t know, her inability to follow orders –“

“I’m not some mindless drone you can order around,” Gwen protested. 

“And I don’t want you to be,” Jack said.  “But you always question me in front of the rest of the team, instead of bringing your concerns to me in private.  You deliberately try to undermine my authority, when you don’t have any clue as to why I might be ordering a certain action.  I have over one hundred years’ experience, Gwen.  I do know what I’m talking about.”

“And let’s not forget your not listening to your teammates when they are far more knowledgeable in their fields than you ever will be,” Ianto added.  “Your misuse of Torchwood resources – which got you suspended.”

Gwen had been suspended?  Rhys was shocked by it, but then he recalled the nearly month that Gwen hadn’t been working.  “That was around the first of the year, wasn’t it?” When Jack confirmed it, he glared at Gwen.  “You told me you were on stand down!”

“Rhys,” she tried to placate him, “it’s not as bad as they’re making it out to be –“

“Not bad?” he asked.  “Sounds like to me it was bad enough that you got suspended!”

“It was blown out of proportion!”  She glared at both men. 

“Gwen,” Jack said, “you stole Retcon, and used it for…personal reasons.  You hadn’t even been trained on its use!  You could have administered the wrong dosage and totally destroyed that person’s mind in the process.”

“I knew what I was doing,” she insisted.

“No, you didn’t,” Ianto disagreed.  “Retcon is a tool we use, and it takes training in how to administer it.  We don’t just pass it around like it was candy.  You should have known better.”

 _Retcon_.  His Gwen had taken Torchwood’s amnesia drug and had given it to someone without permission or training.  “I can’t believe you’d be so reckless, Gwen.”  He was ashamed of her for it, for nearly ruining someone’s life.  “What had been so important that you’d needed to steal that shit?”

“How do you know what Retcon even is?” she asked him, surprised.

“Ianto explained it to me at the pub.  It was my choice…to forget everything he’d told me, or to sign their bloody Secrecy Act.  Which I did…mostly for you, but also there was no way in hell I wanted to forget that I’d met an honest to God dragon.  But mainly, it was for you so you wouldn’t need to hide anything from me anymore.”  He was so disappointed in her.  “Now I’m beginning to wonder if I should have said yes to it.”

“No, Rhys,” she pleaded, her eyes wide.  “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?  I’ve just found out my fiancée almost poisoned someone.  Nothing could be worth that.”

“It was,” she assured him.  “At the time, it had been.  Please believe me, Rhys!”

Rhys looked down at her, and for the first time he truly believed everything that Jack and Ianto were telling him.  There’d been doubt, because this was Gwen, his Gwen, the woman he wanted to marry and have a family with, and he never wanted to truly think bad of her.  He’d never met either Jack or Ianto until tonight, and there was still that tiny grain of doubt that had worked its way into his head and wanted to disbelieve everything they’d been saying about her. 

But this…he couldn’t understand what would cause her to do something so dangerous to someone.  Couldn’t she have gone to either of them and asked them to do it for her?  Oh, of course not…Ianto had said it was for personal reasons that she’d taken the Retcon in the first place, and he was quite certain Torchwood had rules against that sort of thing. 

“What was it, Gwen?”  He needed to know the truth.  “What could have possibly motivated you to do such a thing to someone?  Tell me!”

Gwen stared up at him, and she wore that expression that usually got him to forgive her anything.   

But she said nothing.

“Rhys,” Ianto cut in, and Rhys glanced at him, still in his chair, looking exhausted.  “Just leave it.  It’s done and over with, and she was punished.  But you can see why we simply cannot have her in Torchwood any longer.   It’s not just the Retcon, but it’s a whole cavalcade of issues that makes us incapable of trusting her with the team’s safety.  I…had hopes for her, and I tried to keep it from getting to this point, but even I have to give up on her now.”

“Ianto’s right,” Jack said.  “Despite Gwen’s feelings toward him, he was the one who wanted to give her the chance to prove herself, and for a while it looked as if she had.  Yes, he’d advised me against hiring her in the first place, but once she was a member of the team he did make the attempt to smooth things over.”

“What changed?” Rhys asked.

“This thing with Beth,” Ianto answered.  “I…liked Beth.  The last thing I wanted to do was see her die, but she trusted me to stop her if she tried to hurt anyone.  I gave her my word that I’d do that, and that I’d always be honest with her.  Gwen tried her damnedest to override me, and it caused Beth more stress than she could really handle.  I’m convinced it was one of the reasons that eventually led to her death.”

“You’re blaming me for killing Beth?” Gwen shouted.  “It was Toshiko that pulled the trigger.”

“It was, but it was you who went in to confront her after we asked that you leave her alone.”

“Because you were telling her there was no hope!  I had to do something to convince her otherwise.”

“But Gwen,” Rhys said, “there _was_ no hope.”  He was seeing her with his eyes wide open now, not clouded by his emotions.  Yes, he loved her dearly and passionately, but this was a new side of her and he didn’t much care for it.

He needed time to process everything he’d found out tonight, but he got the impression he wasn’t going to get it.

They were going to fire Gwen from Torchwood.  While no one had come out and said it, Rhys knew that had to mean Retcon.  It only made sense, since what they did was so very secret.  He was certain she’d signed the same papers he had, but could Jack and Ianto really risk her keeping it to herself?  Rhys didn’t believe so, and it was obvious that Gwen had the potential to be a security risk.   But then, so did he.

He felt sick to his stomach.

“How can you say that?” she asked. 

“Because I saw the footage, Gwen.  I saw her attack you.  And, if there was a choice between her and you, I’m glad they chose you.”

“But she wasn’t –“

“We’re not going over that again, Gwen,” Ianto warned.  “You don’t know what Beth would or would not have done.  So just stop arguing about it.”

“And you do?” If looks could kill, Ianto would have been dead several times over.

“The only thing I know was that Beth never wanted to hurt anyone, and made me promise to stop her.  Now, as I said, enough.  I’m tired of it.”

“Gwen,” Jack said, standing.   “Your services are no longer required by Torchwood.  Nothing will change my mind, and the rest of the team is behind me on this decision.  You will be Retconned and released from duty.”

Gwen suddenly looked very frightened.  “Please don’t do that!  I can keep your secrets.”

“We can’t take that risk.  You will report to the Hub at 8am, when you will be Retconned.  Rhys will come as well.”

Rhys nodded, swallowing hard.  If they were going to Retcon Gwen after being with Torchwood for nearly a year, what were they going to do with him?

 

**********

****

**_30 June 2008_ **

****

“Wha…what happened?”

“Thank God you’re awake.  How do you feel?”

“I…I dunno…”

“It’s okay, Gwen.  You were hurt but the doctor says you’re gonna be just fine.”

“I…don’t remember…”

“That’s not a surprise.  You do remember me though, right?”

“You’re Rhys…my boyfriend.”

“That’s right, love.  Now you rest, I’m gonna go and speak to the doctor.  He’ll want to check you over, now that you’re conscious.”

“No!  Please don’t leave me…”

“I’ll be right back, I promise.”

“Okay…”

 

**********

 

“How is she?”  Jack asked.  Rhys had to give him credit; he did look concerned.

“The doctor says her memories of the last ten months are completely gone.”  They’d explained to him what they’d wanted him to do, and Rhys had accepted the responsibility. 

But he still retained his memories of Torchwood, few as they were.  Jack and Ianto had trusted him, and Rhys wasn’t at all sure why.

“You have no idea how sorry I am that things turned out this way –“

“I know, Jack.  Believe me, I know.”  He really wished that Gwen had never gotten involved with Torchwood.  It had changed her almost beyond recognition, but at least that version of his fiancée was now gone.  They could go back to the way things had been before.

Or maybe they couldn’t.

It had been meeting that Owen bloke at the Hub, the one who’d administered the Retcon to a vociferously protesting Gwen, that had finally turned the tide. 

_“I need to tell you something…”_

_“What sort of something?”_

_“I’ve been sleeping…I’ve been having sex with someone else.  From work.  His name is Owen, he’s a bit of a tosser and it’s all gonna stop –“_

Rhys remembered it all.  The conversation.  The confession.  The Retcon, all because she’d wanted his forgiveness without any of the consequences.  And he hadn’t done it.  He hadn’t forgiven her.

He’d been the one she’d drugged with the stolen Retcon.  He’d been the one she’d risked just because she was feeling ashamed of what she’d done. 

His Gwen, the woman he loved, could have damaged him permanently.

He wasn’t sure he could accept that.

But, for now, he had a duty to do.  Ianto had admitted that he’d been feeling Rhys out yesterday in the pub, and that the dragon had been pleased at how well Rhys had taken the information about Torchwood.  Ianto had even gone to Jack and suggested they hire Rhys, but Rhys didn’t want a job with them, not yet. 

They’d already set up a couple of different stories to explain Gwen’s loss of memory.  The one Rhys had chosen had them staying in Cardiff; it was his home, after all, and he didn’t want to leave it.  But they couldn’t risk her going back to the police, and so they’d arranged it so that Gwen would think she’d been injured during a special operation, and that the brain damage that caused the amnesia meant she couldn’t be a copper anymore. 

“Call us if you need us,” Ianto said, “no matter what it is.”

They couldn’t risk her seeing any of them and triggering her memory.  She’d been in Torchwood almost too long, Jack had admitted, and that meant the chances of something bringing her memories back was greater. 

It was too bad, because Rhys thought that they could have been great friends.

“I will,” he answered.    And he would.  Rhys knew he would.

“Take care.”  Jack offered his hand, and Rhys took it.  Ianto did the same.

“I need to get back in,” Rhys said.  “I don’t want to leave Gwen alone for too long, she gets agitated.”

Jack nodded, and then turned to go.  Ianto looked at him for several more seconds.  “You are a true dragon friend, Rhys Williams.  It might not mean much to you, but you are.”

Rhys had an inkling what that might mean, from his Gran’s stories, but Ianto was right…it really didn’t mean much to him at that moment. 

He didn’t say anything.  Instead, he spun on his heel and headed into the hospital, not looking back.  He tucked his hands into his pockets, his right fingers brushing against the engagement ring that he’d removed from Gwen’s finger. 

Rhys had his duty.  And he was going to do it.  But things would never be the same.

 

 


End file.
